Poe leaves race, debate down to 2

Frontiersman

MAT-SU — With Democrat Bob Poe stepping out of the race for governor, the second in a two-part series of gubernatorial election events in Wasilla is now down to two candidates.

From the get-go, the plan had been to invite all 12 candidates to a forum last week, then select four based on their performance to come back this Thursday for a debate.

Eight of the 12 showed up. Absent were the incumbent, Republican Sean Parnell, Libertarian William Toien, Republican Brad Snowden and Alaskan Independence Party candidate Donald Wright.

After the event, the tallies from three judges in the audience put Poe, Democrat Ethan Berkowitz and Republican Ralph Samuels in a tie for first with Republican Bill Walker coming in fourth. Democrat Hollis French came in fifth, Republicans Sam Little and Gerald Heikes tied for sixth and Republican Merica Hlatcu came in last.

But then after last week’s forum, Samuels, despite his first-place showing, let the organizations putting the events together — The Greater Wasilla and Greater Palmer chambers of commerce — know he couldn’t make the second event.

The chambers offered his seat to French, who initially accepted but, after double-checking his schedule, declined.

So the chambers decided to go with three candidates — Poe, Walker and Berkowitz.

Now there’s just the two. Most likely.

“If Samuels has a schedule change and happens to be able to participate, we’d be happy to have him,” said organizer Diana Straub. Same goes for French.

Straub also said Parnell was just following the rules when he declined the invitation to participate. The chambers had asked candidates not to agree to the events if they couldn’t do both.

“In the very beginning when Sean Parnell’s campaign said, ‘We can’t participate’ it definitely was because we were asking them to hold two dates open,” Straub said. “They did play by the rules; they said, ‘Gosh we can’t commit to both so we just won’t come.’”

The gubernatorial events were just the first in a series the two chambers plan to hold every Thursday between now and Aug. 2. The rest of the list is as follows:

• June 24: Lieutenant governor forum.

• July 8: U.S. Representative 5 to 6 p.m.

• July 8: U.S. Senate 6 to 7 p.m.

• July 15: State House District 13 forum.

• July 22: State House District 14 forum.

• July 29: State Senate District H forum.

• Aug. 5: Mat-Su Borough Assembly forum.

• Aug. 12: Mat-Su Borough School District forum.

• Aug. 19: Wasilla City Council forum.

• Aug. 26: Palmer City Council forum at the Palmer Depot.

• Aug. 2: Palmer mayoral candidate at the Palmer Depot.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.